


forever, this time

by satinsails



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games)
Genre: Established Relationship, F/M, Grey Warden Alistair (Dragon Age), Hurt/Comfort, The Calling (Dragon Age)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-28
Updated: 2020-12-28
Packaged: 2021-03-11 03:01:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 694
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28378113
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/satinsails/pseuds/satinsails
Summary: Alistair and the Warden's conversation before she leaves to find a cure for The Calling.
Relationships: Alistair/Female Warden (Dragon Age), Alistair/Warden (Dragon Age)
Kudos: 8





	forever, this time

**Author's Note:**

> "When I'm done here, we'll be together again. Forever, this time."

She sat on their bed, clad in a button up shirt and her underwear, a blanket covering her legs while she held a mug of warm tea in her hands. Her eyes followed Alistair back and forth as he paced beside the fireplace, mumbling to himself, before they settled on the steaming liquid. She swirled it around in her cup, and for a moment, wished she could drown in it - fall into its warmth and comfort and melt away.

They knew this would happen eventually. It always did.

"My love," she said softly, and he paid her no mind. Back and forth and back and forth. The worries he mumbled came out faster than her mind could think.

"It's always something, isn't it?" he laughed dryly, still walking back and forth and back and forth, and her eyes grew so tired of following him that she wondered how his feet were still moving. "And don't tell me 'we chose this life' like you always do, because _I know_ , but I thought maybe we'd catch a break once in awhile. For more than a few months at a time, at least. And you _didn't_ choose it. Not really."

"My love," she repeated, a bit louder, and his words didn't falter.

"Could it happen one thing at a time? Is that too much to ask?" he said, his eyes narrowed at his feet as they moved back and forth and back and forth. "I wouldn't mind the fighting if it were with you. I would be able to keep you safe, and if we'd die, we'd die together. But Corypheus can't wait, and this lead can't wait, because he's building his army, and the dreams keep getting louder, and more real, and-"

"Alistair." He came to a halt, his stare still on the ground. With a heavy sigh, he sat on the edge of the bed, his head in his hands.

"I'm sorry," he said after a few moments of tense silence. She placed her mug on the nightstand, and he removed his face from his hands, taking one of hers in his own. He placed a gentle kiss on it before resting their clasped hands in his lap. "I don't know what to do."

"We're out of options," she admitted, and he rubbed the back of her hand soothingly. "We can't ignore The Calling. You and I both know, if these were normal circumstances, we'd be headed to the Deep Roads together. If there's even a chance at reversing it, we need to take it. But we are Wardens before we are lovers, and Corypheus poses an impending threat."

"I just wish..." he started, but then he fell silent once more. 

"I know."

They both dreamt of another life, where they were free from the binds of oaths, and the weight of the world was not on their shoulders. They would marry and have children and grow old together. They would be no Heroes of Ferelden. They would be no Grey Wardens. Life would not pull them apart at every opportunity.

It was hard to imagine how they had come to think of the Fifth Blight as _simpler times_. Coy smiles and stealing kisses at camp. Witty conversations and picking flowers on the road. Fighting darkspawn all the while.

The Warden's heart ached as she saw a tear fall from Alistair's hooded eyes. She reached out her free hand to cup his cheek, wiping it away and tilting his face towards hers. She offered him a sad smile and met his eyes as tears spilled from her own.

"We haven't even been properly wed," he said, and his voice shook in choked desolation. She brought their lips together, and their mouths moved back and forth and back and forth until their kisses turned salty. They parted and wiped each other's tears, their faces in each other's hands.

"We will as soon as I return," she said. She would leave tomorrow morning. There was no time to waste.

"Promise you'll come back to me, my love."

"I promise," she said, and they laid with each other for one more night before they parted one last time.

**Author's Note:**

> i don't know if this has already been done! surely it has, but here is my short take on it.
> 
> i think of what this conversation would have been like often. hope you enjoyed! (:


End file.
